first of all, my thoughts on the whole napster fiasco: the riaa does not seem to realize how much trouble they would be bringing down upon themselves by shutting down napster. without napster, gnutella and other decentralized file-sharing programs will reach critical mass. when that happens, there's no one the riaa can sue except the file-traders themselves (iow, the fans). the riaa is understandably loathe to do that, but that's really the only option they have without napster to kick around. don't get me wrong, i really love napster. it's so sweet to be able to get rare b-sides by bands like slowdive and in flames that i wouldn't normally bother to track down. and it's really cool to be able to listen to new album in advance of the release date (as i did with the latest sunny day real estate and in flames albums). but i find the current situation for the record labels rather amusing. after putting the squeeze on so many talented artists, they're finally getting the flak they so richly deserve. and the labels are pretty much in a no-win situation. if napster goes, they're the bad guys, and they really haven't solved the problem of unauthorized free song swapping, and if it stays, they've set a important legal precedent for free data sharing and contributed to their own demise. anyway.
my life has been mind-numbingly boring the past few days..."work" friday consisted of me sitting around and reading for three hours, trying somewhat unsuccessfully to stay awake, and slurping green tea. i sure as hell don't *mind* getting paid to do nothing, but i'd rather spend my time at the junior high, seeing as how that's where i'll being doing most of my work this school year. plus, i wanna get some exercise, gosh darn it, and there's a hoop at the school. >:-) i really like the smell of sanbongi at night...it reminds me a bit of colorado...the short autumn is something i'm really looking forward to.
if i've understood my supervisor correctly, i get paid this coming week. neato, and all, but i'm more looking forward to getting my jinmetourokusho (alien registration card). when that comes through, i can finally get a membership at the furukawa video store. actually, the wage packet will be nice too, as i can put some in my accounts and stop worrying about the phone bill i'm racking up (another reason the junior high looks so inviting), and i can pay off my mom for the credit card debts i incur before flying over here. i'm rather looking forward to getting my own credit card, but i want to have a decent amount of money stored up in the bank before i start charging...
i just started trying to read through psalms today...i'm hoping to get some sort of bible reading schedule going while i'm over here, as part of the whole glenn self-improvement plan (i.e., read through the bible, get in shape, read a ton of books, become a complete person, etc.) it's not that bad, not nearly as bad as trying to slog through deuteronomy. my bible, the oxford annotated nrsv, has a lot of notes that are pretty interesting. also went through the grade 6 kanji today on a computer program called kanjigold. highly recommended if you wanna learn the 2000 or so japanese ideograms used in the written language. it's available at web.uvic.ca/kanji-gold. it's released under the gnu public license, so it's free. check it out.
been listening to - daniel amos - cornerstone 2000 bootleg, slowdive - b-sides, cush, and uncle tupelo.